Transcript

Mastering Your Mind: Harnessing the Brain for Growth with John Assaraf

From Mick Unplugged Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 37 min · 6,427 words · 81 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Mastering Your Mind: Harnessing the Brain for Growth with John Assaraf", an episode of Mick Unplugged Podcast published January 5, 2026 (37 min, about 6,427 words). It mentions 4 people, works and ideas, including Neurofitness, Amazon, John Asaraf, Oura Ring.

What this episode is about

In this discussion with John Assaraf, key insights are shared on how to rewire one's identity and challenge personal limits for greater success. The conversation delves into the neuroscience behind lasting achievement, common pitfalls high achievers face, and practical daily strategies to build confidence and resilience, all aimed at transforming mindset for extraordinary growth.

Key takeaways

  • Change starts with identity; until you redefine yourself, progress is just a wish upon a star.
  • Discipline is the lightest cost of success; regret is the heavyweight champion of life.
  • High achievers can still fall into traps; even the best need a reminder that comfort zones feel cozy for a reason.
  • Building resilience isn't just a skill; it's a science that reprograms your mental wiring for success.
  • Hot peppers may fuel John Asarath's fire, but it's his insights that ignite profound personal transformations.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 30:00: Amazon
  2. – 35:00: John Asaraf

Notable quotes from "Mastering Your Mind: Harnessing the Brain for Growth with John Assaraf"

  • People the use of AI as their companion and tool on a platform like Netflix has for entertainment and Amazon has for shopping. Neuroim will be where people go for their mental…
    about Amazon · at
  • This. You talk about, your book for 2025, 2026. 20 years from now when John Asaraf's name is said, what's the one emotion that you want your name to trigger in people?
    about John Asaraf · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

Concepts & topics

Full transcript with timestamps

If you're ready to rewire your identity, challenge your limits, and step into a higher level of success, then this, I promise, is the episode for you. And today's conversation with John Asarath, it was more than a conversation in an interview. It was a complete master class. A master class in identity, neuroscience, and the mental wiring behind extraordinary achievement. We broke down why most people never change, how the brain protects your comfort zone at all costs, and the daily disciplines that separate leaders who last from leaders who fade. John talked about the power of rewriting your inner story, the traps that even high achievers fall into, and the science behind building confidence, resilience, and unstoppable belief. And at the end, we talk about his love of hot peppers as well. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my good friend, Mr. John Asarath.

This is Make Unplugged. Let us uncover the because that thing that drives you, that thing that fuels you. I'm ready if you are. Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And you know me and I'm all about leadership. There are leaders who chase success and then there are leaders like today's guest that engineer it. Today you're hearing from a man who built neuroscience into a roadmap. He he built multiple multi-million dollar companies and helped millions break free from the limits that they thought were permanent.

Get ready for a call on strategy, a master class on development, and a serious conversation with my good friend, Mr. John Asarat. John, how you doing today, brother?

Nick, I'm doing great. Wonderful to be with you and all of the people that are listening or watching us today.

I'm the honored one, brother. I've been a huge follower of you for a while. Started out following you on LinkedIn. Then became a subscriber to some of the things you were doing on your website. Have a couple of your books, which I didn't say in the opener, but also just a best-selling author. New York Times two-time bestselling author as well. No, man. Just again, huge fan. Want to give you your flowers while we're here together.

Oh, thank you. And I always ask my guests this question about their because that thing that's deeper than your why, right? Like if I were to ask you what your why is, probably tell me your spouse, your children, but there's a reason that they're your why. And I call that your because I'd love for John, man, like today, because your because probably changes time to time today. What is your because what is your purpose to continue to give like you give, bro?

Well, first and foremost, my why or because are not my kids or my wife. So, if you're watching or listening upstairs, it's not because of you. Um,

edit that out because they're gonna it's holiday season. Listen, my because as to why I do what I do is I believe that our creator gave me some gifts and many many many blessings that I have unveiled over decades. A I refuse to so-called die meet with God and uh he or she asking me what did you do with those gifts that I gave you while I put you on that beautiful blue planet of mine and I refuse to go I squandered my life and time that you gave me my biggest why and because two um I don't want to sit in my rocking chair if I'm alive in my I'm in my mid60s now my 70s and 80s and 90s and reflect back and feel regret.

One of my friends before he died, Jim Ran, very wonderful philosopher and brilliant man, you know, at dinner one night, he he quoted one of his famous quotes and he said, "In life, you'll either pay the price of discipline or you will pay the price of regret." He says, "Discipline weighs ounces. Regret weighs tons." And I've had so many people in my environment over the decades that got to their 60s,7s and even they had so many regrets and the common denominator is why didn't I when I could have and I can now. I'm fortunately healthy, happy, able, capable. I've been blessed with the ability to take some complex stuff and make it easier for people to understand because I like it easy.

Yeah. And I feel it's my duty to it's my reason for being. Yeah. And uh in doing so, I receive the gifts of sharing and loving and caring. That gives my life purpose and meaning. And with purpose and meaning, I could have impact. With impact, I can have a little bit of positive influence. with a bit of positive influence, I can make people's lives a little bit better and the environment better and animals and trees and the planet. So, I'm using my life in and I have this written down in as many ways as I can so that I feel not you.

You think I feel I have not squandered life. Bro, that is so deep. Yeah, I thought about it a lot.

That is so deep, man. And and like I'm going to go back to when I first started following you because you teach a principle where you said something that made me stop in my tracks literally and I went I went to my office and just started writing. You said that nothing changes until the identity changes. And I sat there and I was like, "Wow, a lot of times people including myself, we get stuck in talking about change." But what you did was actually make me introspect on what needed to change. And so you started talking about the identity. And and I've always wanted to ask you, and so I'm selfishly asking this question.

If for any of the listeners or viewers, if you want to know the answer to this too, this is a selfish question from Mick. Talk to us about what you mean by that. Like I know because I follow you.

Sure. Yeah. But talk about why that is so critically important as like the first step of change.

So we will never ever ever outperform our hidden selfimage of ourselves. So there's the you that I want people watching or listening to see. There's the me that my wife and kids see. And then there's the me that I see with all my fears and insecurities and fetishes and anything else that that I have. So my own identity of how I see me will determine what I do. It'll determine how I think. It'll determine what I expect. It'll determine, you know, I behave consistently,

you know, without enormous amounts of willpower. And so that's kind of like the identity piece and and the question becomes were you born with that identity or did you develop an identity and the answer is well I developed my beliefs I developed my fears I developed my confidence and certainty or lack thereof my self-image self-worth self-esteem right these are all part of identity and it is a result of my parents my teachers my school my experiences the meaning I gave things that formulated this identity and then um I behave in alignment with that identity and if I'm out of alignment I have something called cognitive dissonance that happens in my brain and it it realizes that I'm out of character and and then I will self-sabotage or procrastinate my way back into the character and the results that I believe I deserve. And so the question becomes, you know, when when we see somebody else that maybe is

achieving something we're not and they're doing things we wish we could do, question is, can I develop the identity that they have so that I behave like they do? Can I take action in spite of feeling afraid? Can I I overcome obstacles and be bigger than the obstacle, you know, instead of the obstacle being bigger than me? And the answer is yes. I can practice a new identity no differently than a basketball player practices free throws. And and with practice, we create permanent patterns. Permanent patterns create what we do automatically. It's called automaticity in the neuroscience world I come from. And so can I practice character traits so I become more like that? Can I practice like a Hollywood actor practices a role until he becomes the damn role? We can't tell that they're acting on TV or in their movies.

Well, can I practice a role that aligns more with the things I want to do, be, have, and experience so that that becomes the new default me. That's growth. So, caterpillars will become butterflies through the metamorphosis. Why can't I metamorphosize into the character, the identity, the person since every brain functionally works the same? Since every brain operationally works the same, it's the software that is the identity. I can upgrade my software no differently than I can upgrade my phone software no different I can upgrade my car software. So I am not my software and identity is part of software. Beliefs are software. The things that causes me to be afraid is because of the memory software that triggers the fear circuit. So I am not my identity, but I do have one. And so, uh, uh, an upgraded level of being is aligning my identity with the person I want to become now.

And then practicing that on a dayby-day basis, which means I have to I have to learn how to regulate my focus because my focus wants to be my old self. I have to learn how to regulate my emotions because when I'm becoming something different, something new, something better, something grander, there's going to be resistance.

Yeah. And that means that fear might creep in. That might might mean that self-doubt creeps in. That might mean that uncertainty creeps in. Self-doubt creeps in. And those are all perfectly normal emotions in a transition phase.

Yeah. Yeah. Now, we haven't been taught how to manage focus. We haven't been taught how to manage emotions. And that's like saying, "I have a beautiful milliondoll car in my driveway, but I haven't been taught how to drive it." And so, we have this hundred billion dollar brain, and we've never been taught the users manual to get it out of park and into drive and use it properly. And this has been the foundation of the work I've done for 45 years now is studying the neuromchanics, you know, to how do I use my brain a little bit better?

Yeah. And and then how do I use that to be healthier, happier, to be contribute more, to experience more, to love more, to give more, to receive more, so I have a a fuller life.

Yeah. So that's engineering success as you mentioned before. Yes sir. And I want to do this for the viewers and listeners too. The reason I started following you, John, was because I believed in something that you said, I'm just not the neuroscience person that you are.

That's all right. So, when you had the evidence to support something I've always believed, I was like, John is my guy. So, for everybody that's watching, everyone that's listening, I'm going to make a statement, then I'm going to let John take the statement from there. John, you've proven, we were talking about the brain just now. You've proven that the human brain, the animal brain is wired to keep us safe, not successful. Yeah. When you said that, I was like, I've been telling people this for years. The reason and and success is defined by however you want to quantify success.

There's moments of success. There could be a portfolio of success. Whatever you call success, it's because you went to a different level than where you naturally were. Because neuroscience says the brain is wired to keep you safe, not successful. Go ahead, John.

Yeah. So, like I said uh earlier from a pure factual perspective, we know the brain, the hardware, every brain looks like every brain, right? So, the hardware looks the same. Every operating system in the brain, it works pretty much like every gas car or electrical car, you know, works the same functionally. And the brain operates on the hierarchy of first and foremost importance right let's say 150 200 million years of human evolution survival first right to ensure safety and survival second priority of the brain is avoidance of pain or discomfort third priority of the brain and conservation of glucose or energy for to make sure that you can fight a saber-tooth tiger you know or run away from danger and then the fourth priority of the brain is pleasure. So we don't move to the pleasure circuit in the brain until survival and safety and and avoidance of pain or discomfort is met.

Minimizing the use of glucose or energy. Our brain uses about 20 to 25% of all calories. And so it's an energy miser. Your brain produces less than 20 watt or 5 watts of power which is what's in your fridge. But it operates at such high intensity of efficiency that it can do all those things in milliseconds. So let's say I want to achieve something new. I have this big goal, a big dream. The brain goes through this in nanconds, right? Can you get hurt doing this? Can you die? Yes. No. No. Okay. Next box. Can you get mentally, emotionally, physically spiritually financially hurt? Yes. No. If any one of those is a yes, breaks go on, right? brakes go on in a nancond. Cortisol is released in the you know through the brain to be high high alert because it's a threat state. So high alert heart rate pumps you know and blood is flowing to be able to get to the muscles in case you need to run away or fight.

Anger you know may pop in for protection which is one of the core emotions. But let's say that there is a chance that I'm going to fail.

Mhm. in the pursuit of what I want to do. Whether I want to lose weight, whether I want to go and ask that guy or that girl what his or her name is, or I want to ask my boss for a raise, or I want to move up the chain of command in my company, and I want to, you know, climb the corporate ladder, so to speak, or I want to go raise $10 million for my business venture. If there's a chance of failure or there's a chance of being embarrassed ashamed ridiculed judged rejected abandoned unloved hurt somehow we go into this preservation mode automatically, not because there's something wrong with our brain. It's there to fulfill its priorities. Safety and avoidance of real or imagined pain or discomfort first. Behind me, you're going to see I've got Frankie's monster over there.

Yeah. But I also have Einstein over here. These represent the two parts of our brain called the left and right prefrontal cortex. So Einstein can create the idea of what we want to do. It can come up with, you know, how am I going to do this? Who whose help am I going to need? What are my strategies? What are my tactics? What's the payoff? What's the benefit? Visualize it. Oh my god, this feels so good. I'm going to do it. High five everybody. I'm ready to go. But Frankie's monster's job is to say, "Hold on there, Einie. If you do that, don't you remember last time you tried to do that? You failed and you lost some money. You You were embarrassed. The last time you spoke up, you were rejected." So, there's a potential danger here. So, Einstein can dream it. Frankie's monster is there to protect you just in case. Now, here's the problem. Einstein's doing what Einstein's supposed to do. imagination's

greater than knowledge, right? Let me let me imagine. Let me come up with how and why and it's possible or or let me come up with ways to make it happen. But the protective side of our brain does the job beautifully and perfectly each time in the form of circuits and neurom modulators or neurochemicals to be able to keep us safe, secure, avoidance of pain, real or imagined.

Yeah. So, here's the problem. We kind of have this one foot on the gas, but we have one foot on the brake because this part of our brain is just trying to protect us. Now, here's the problem. It's not the problem with imagination or coming up with plans and commitments. It's not the problem that this part of the brain is trying to protect you. The problem is most people have never been taught what to do when I feel afraid. What to do when I'm, you know, what are you afraid of? Well, I'm afraid of being embarrassed. Okay, if you're embarrassed, what does it mean? Well, it means maybe I'm not smart enough. Maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe, you know, I made mistakes. Great. Well, what does that mean? Where did you get that? Oh, when I was a kid in school and I got up, you know, to give an answer and I gave the wrong answer. A few of the guys or the girls laughed at me and said, "Haha, you're such an idiot." So, that's what

you're moving away from is judgment. You're moving away from maybe the reality that you are that little kid who isn't smart enough, good enough, worthy enough. Good. Let's address that because until we address that, you're not moving forward.

So, there's nothing wrong with the emotions. The emotions are beautiful eight core emotions we've been given for protection or for soothing comfort, you know, or for feeling love and appreciate. We have these emotions, the energy in motion. Yeah.

And the problem is we just have not been taught how to navigate this incredible incredible systems, you know, that our creator blessed us with. So, we're dealing with ignorance is my biggest enemy.

Yeah. Not knowing ignorance and and something that you often talk about those inner narratives. What are some other inner narratives that people can dispel or or how you help people because you also have a group of people that you'll coach or that you'll work with one-on-one or companies that can bring you in like what are some inner narratives that you help people overcome?

Well, there's there's usually four things that hold people back and they're buckets.

So, let's say bucket number one is going to be fear and there's 50 different types of fear that hold us back. So one of them is called disappointment avoidance. So let's say I uh commit to X Y or Z.

My health, my relationship, my business, my job. Mhm. If there's a risk that I'm going to disappoint myself or somebody else again, red flag goes up. Neurochemicals deactivate the motivational circuit in the brain and we procrastinate, self-sabotage, and we repeat patterns to keep us safe. So fear is a big one. Even though there's nothing wrong with a fear circuit, but what triggers it is different in everybody.

Yeah. Right. So for some people I might say imagine that a snake, you know, is right behind you right now or it's slithering from 20 feet away from you. It's 10 feet long, 250 lbs and it is moving fast and you recognize it's a python and you know it's going to, you know, try and get around your body to squeeze the air and life out of you and maybe kill you. Some people as I said that they're already squirming because just the word snake activated circuits in the brain the released cortisol into their blood flow causing the feeling. Other people like it wouldn't bother me at all. I get my phone out and I'd just take a selfie.

Yeah. Right. So it's not the snake part one. Part two is limiting beliefs. I have beliefs that are limiting me. I'm white. I'm black. I live in this part of the world. I live in that part of the world. I'm divorced. I'm 65. No, I'm 85. I'm 22. Whatever the narrative is, as you mentioned before, is based on the beliefs that we have. And the question I ask is when you were born, did you have those beliefs? When you were born, did you have those fears? Zero and zero. And so, you developed what your belief system is. I'm good enough. I'm not good enough. I'm just the right age. I'm too old. You know, it's really hard to advance in my company. Whatever it is that we believe, we create. Why? Because our brain repeats narratives, reinforces narratives, and drives behaviors to align with beliefs. And it actually causes your brain not to see things that are in opposition of what you believe.

It causes us not to see what's right there. Why? Because our brain doesn't want the contradiction. So, we have limiting belief. So let's say you know I have a limiting belief X Y or Z. So anybody that's watching or listening give yourself a limiting belief right now. What what is one limiting belief you have? I'm going to give you a little trick. As soon as we have I believe this. I'm too young. I'm too old. I'm not enough of this. I'm too much of that. It's not the right time. I don't have enough of this. I don't have enough of that because what if we just change the narrative said in the past I used to believe that and now I'm choosing to believe and create the positive belief.

I'm choosing to believe I'm just the right age. I'm choosing to believe there's more than enough opportunities. I'm choosing to believe that there's more enough money, more than enough time, more than enough people, more than enough.

Your brain all of a sudden opens up. Okay? Like camera opens up, you know, from w from single, you know, monopocus lens to wide angle lens. Your brain all of a sudden opens up and you start to see things that are in alignment with the new belief. So belief is nothing more than a reinforced neural pattern in the brain. But the reinforced neural pattern in the brain is like the lens and the programming that sees the outer world. So that's why we, you know, we often say we don't see what there is to see. We see what we believe is there to see.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's number two. And then we talked a little bit about this earlier. So now we have limiting beliefs can be holding you back. Fears could be holding you back. Identity or self-image can be holding you back.

Mhm. And if I don't believe that I'm worthy of achieving this or that I'm good enough or smart enough to achieve this or deserving enough because of my low selfimage.

Yeah. But I won't achieve it. Yeah. And we always rise to the level of those three things. And then the fourth one is if we tie what I'm about to share with you with uh what we talked about earlier, we do more to avoid pain or discomfort than we do to gain pleasure. if um I don't have the knowledge and skill of how to achieve X Y or Z and I can say I don't have the knowledge and skill how to get in shape and stay in shape. I don't have the knowledge and skills of how to have a great relationship and keep it. I don't have the knowledge and skills of how to advance my career. I don't have the knowledge and skills how to grow my business. I don't have the knowledge and skills how to raise money. I don't have the knowledge and skills to achieve the vision goal I have. When we don't have the knowledge and skill, our brain goes into a state of uncertainty. Now for a brain that likes and creates certainty,

a lack of certainty creates doubt. A state of doubt creates fear. A state of fear deactivates the very circus we need to take action. So it's it's it's neuromchanical, right? So when I don't have certainty, then I'm going to move into a state of repeating the pattern that I have certainty around. And even if I don't want more of the same result, there's something in neuroscience that we teach called the law of secondary gain. The law of secondary gain. And the law of secondary gain says even though I may not get what I want, my primary gain. The secondary gain I get is the release of dopamine, feelgood neurochemical for keeping myself safe.

Yeah. And that's why we repeat patterns that we don't want to repeat because our brain is creating the correlation between repeat this pattern and at least you feel safe because you feel safe in either the misery, the result you want, the weight you have, the relationship you have, the income you have because at least it's the devil. You know,

this is a master class, John. We get to talk to the guru of neuroscience here. You always have, these are the words of Mick and Mick only. And I mean this in a a very charming way. You all have so much going on that that you're doing because you're making impact, right? And I wholeheartedly know that the things that you get involved with, the things that you do, your mission is to always make impact. So what are some of the things that you have going on now? Like the floor is yours. Like open us up to the world of John Asarf really. Right now for the last you know 10 years we've been doing enormous amounts of research in neuroscience and neuroscychology fields on understanding you know how the brain adapts how the brain changes how the brain shifts from I can't to I can from you know from lack of motivation to you know more than enough motivation you know from fear to fuel for success from

limiting beliefs to empowering epic stories and we've been building for the last year an entire neuroitness fitness ecosystem and platform where we can we'll be able to starting beginning of next year do a neuroitness assessment on everybody who wants to do a neuroitness assessment and we'll have a free neuroitness assessment and then it'll tell us which of your seven core neurom muscles is strong or weak. So for example, your emotional regulation and stress management neuro muscle is it strong or weak? Is it controlling you or are you controlling it? It will have baselines. Your your decision making abilities and your critical thinking abilities are they strong or weak? And here's what we know. Just like the body has seven core physical muscles, right?

You can uh walk or hike or do Pilates or yoga or lift weights and you can strengthen your muscles whether it's your your chest muscles or your back muscle. You can strengthen the muscles. You can strengthen your leg muscles so you know you have a little bit more self-control and strength. Why not strengthen your core neurom muscles? Why not educate people on a what are these neurom muscles that I have? And then if they're weak, why not give them inner sizes, neuro fitness, brain training inner sizes to make them stronger. Yeah.

So we've developed an entire ecosystem to be able to do assessments, tie it into performance, behavior, and help people get stronger mentally, emotionally that'll obviously affect them physically so they can get stronger in health, wealth, relationships, career, business, finances from the inside out. So, we've designed and developed um the platform already. Uh right now, we just started raising $10 million from investors to uh to be able to put the the um entire platform uh uh out to the world. So, for example, we've already trained 37 AI coaches to be able to coach individuals after a personalized plan is created for them at a fraction of what would it cost you to have an AI or a real coach, which might be $250 a session. What if we can give you unlimited access to 37 different AI coaches that are worldclass coaches and worldclass at every methodology that you can have access to 247 every day of the

week? What if we can create programs customized for you to help you overcome any of your specific limitations with inner sizes to strengthen your mind with programs to say here's step one here's step two here's step three go do those we'll track it we'll measure it we'll iterate it and you'll be able to accelerate what if we could attach it to your aura ring or your watch and we added biometrics what if we just had one ecosystem for mental and emotional fitness training so you can get better and as you got better, you achieve more, have more, be more. Well, we've already developed the platform. We're launching it in 58 languages in January

and we're adding worldrenowned expert to teach live. So, think Pelaton for your mind.

We've built it. And so, now I'm raising $10 million like right now. And we're doing a crowdfunding for the first 1.25 million. And um people are investing a,000, 2,000, 5,000. We have a couple people that have already invested a h 100,000 because they believe in their they're members of our programs now. And that's the big play that I've got going on for the next several years is to give people the use of AI as their companion and tool um on a platform like Netflix has for entertainment and Amazon has for shopping. Neuroim will be where people go for their mental and emotional fitness training. And it doesn't matter if you're a beginner, intermediate, advanced, or prolevel athlete. Or if you're a kindergartener, we will have what you need to use this hundred billion dollar brain of yours. Smarter, faster, better, and for a fraction of the cost of what's happening right now with our damaged health care. We have a

sick care system, not a health care system. So we are making a dent to help people with a variety of different challenges by helping them use this powerful biggest pharmacy in the world is between our ears and every word we use um elicits an emotion and neural circuitry. Why not deliberately use your own brain to help you shatter limitations? Get rid of whatever's been holding you back for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years and let's use your brain better to help you. That's what I'm working on now. That's been a 10-year vision that I've had and we finally have the technology to be able to do it.

Dude, I can't wait. I want to be a supporter. Thank you. Um, I will make sure that in the show notes, in the descriptions, I'll start posting links to everything on social. I want everyone to get around this and rally with this because it's going to impact, it's going to change lives, and it's going to help us as humans be better humans. And so, John, I appreciate you for that. Right.

Thank you. I have a goal of unlocking and unleashing a billion minds in the next 10 years or less.

Let's do it. I'm supporting it. I'm supporting it. I need accept and I appreciate it.

Yes, sir. So, John, I'm going to get you out of here on my I call it my quick five. So, rapid fire

five questions. What's one belief about success that you had in your 20s that you now know was completely wrong?

It's not about money. I listen I grew up my father was a cab driver my mother worked a local like Kmart Walmart department store and there was never enough money at the end of the month

they were always struggling and I thought okay if I just make money money money money money money money money money I'll be successful and then I made a lot of money in my early 20s and I got ulcerative colitis and then I had to focus on getting healthy because that was really more important

yeah it's not about money. It's really, you know, like success is really about finding what gives you the balance for you, the harmony for you. And sometimes, you know, um, you know, you have to sacrifice things of a lower value for things of a higher value.

And I will not sacrifice my health ever again. Love it. Love it. Second question. What's one daily habit that looks small on the outside but can really transform someone on the inside?

Oh my god. Well, I'll show you. In front of me, I have my exceptional life blueprint for 2025 and 2026. So, the first thing is I have my this is like my digital vision board of my family, my kids, um the lifestyle that we're living or the lifestyle that you know we we want um and the things I want to do have achieved. But then every day I read the story of my life.

So I have the story that I wrote out with the beliefs, the habits, the results. And every day it's sitting here on my desk. There's one upstairs. There's one on my briefcases. There's one everywhere. So that I can prime my brain with the new story. So I fire and wire my brain to the level of the identity and vision and goals and results that I want every single day for five minutes.

Love it. Love it. Speaking of every single day for five minutes, are you coffee, tea, water? First liquid of the day. Well, water first, one glass of water when I wake up, followed by a double or triple espresso, and then a lot of times I'll have iced tea during the day. But right now in my be kind mug, I have water. I

I knew that. That's why I put all three of those. I didn't know you had water in there, but I knew you were advocate of all three, so that's why I asked where'd you go to first.

All right. So, what a lot of people don't know about my buddy John is he is a connoisseur of hot peppers and hot sauces. So, John, what is the hottest thing you have ever eaten?

Oh, when I started getting on this hot hot sauce kick um probably about I don't know 15 years ago, I I I I tried a whole ghost pepper and I ended up in the bathroom for a couple of hours actually pulling my car on the o over on the side of the road and um exponging the ghost pepper. It was so hot. It was it was beyond. So, I still eat a little bit of ghost pepper, but not a whole one at a time.

But the Trinidad Scorpion is also just brutal. I could have little bits of it. And I love hot sauces. I I'm a zero on the spice meter. I I barely like pepper. Just ground pepper, black pepper. I barely like it. All right, John. Last question. I'm getting you out of here on this. You talk about, you know, your your book for 2025, 2026. 20 years from now when John Asaraf's name is said, what's the one emotion that you want your name to trigger in people?

People feel the love that I shared with my just how I showed up and shared selflessly.

I love it. I love it, John. I love you too, brother. Man, like I love you too, man.

Appreciate you more than you'll ever know. Like I said, I'm going to put links to all of your things in the show notes. So, the books, we didn't even talk about the amazing books, but we'll do that in part two. How about that?

That'll be great. I love it. Definitely links to your site, how people can help with the crowdfunding and be a part of what you have going on. And like I said, corporations that are out here listening and watching, individuals that are listening and watching, John has accountability coaching, mentor programs that I think all of you should at least look at. Bring them in. Hire him as a speaker for for your event is one. He's going to bring it. You've heard the episode today. I mean, he he delivers a master class every time he's in front of you.

And here's what separates John. And I'm going to say this, these are the words of Mick and Mick only. He genuinely cares. Thank you.

He genuinely cares. John, I appreciate you brother. Thank you, Mick. Appreciate you, too. And it was so much fun.

You got it. And to all the viewers and listeners, remember your Because is your superpower. Go unleash it. You've been plugged into Mick Unplugged. Don't just listen, take action. Rate and subscribe.

Follow me on social and get the full experience at mickhuntofficial.com. Keep building, keep leading, and most importantly, keep dominating.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Mastering Your Mind: Harnessing the Brain for Growth with John Assaraf"?

Mick Huntoff (Host), John Assaraf (Guest).

What is "Mastering Your Mind: Harnessing the Brain for Growth with John Assaraf" about?

In this discussion with John Assaraf, key insights are shared on how to rewire one's identity and challenge personal limits for greater success. The conversation delves into the neuroscience behind lasting achievement, common pitfalls high achievers face, and practical daily strategies to build confidence and resilience, all aimed at transforming mindset for extraordinary growth.

What is mentioned in this Mick Unplugged Podcast episode?

4 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Neurofitness, Amazon, John Asaraf, Oura Ring. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Mastering Your Mind: Harnessing the Brain for Growth with John Assaraf"?

The episode runs 37 min; the transcript is about 6,427 words in 81 timestamped sections.

More from Mick Unplugged Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.